POLL: Cell Phone Paid for by the Church?

Texting is a must. Being available is a must. We live “on call” all of the time. If you work in youth ministry you know the importance of a great cell phone. Students live on Facebook and texting, parents email and voice calling. This thought led me to the poll question of the week – does your church pay for your cell phone? At my church they’ve recently changed from paying for it outright to a stipend plan each month, either way it is an incredible benefit but also a necessary tool. Vote now!

Just an aside: in an economy like we have today, it might be hard for a church to increase salaries of their staff or even bring you on full-time. One idea to still ask for an increase might be to suggest a development account (for books, etc), more vacation time (which costs the church nothing out of pocket) or small wins like a cell phone stipend, mileage, etc.

Josh Griffin

11 responses to POLL: Cell Phone Paid for by the Church?

I’m not a paid youth worker (I’m part of the volunteer staff), but I will say that the cell company my phone is with is a huge blessing. All of my incoming calls/texts/etc are no charge. It’s one of the smaller cell companies out there (US Cellular), but if they’re available in your area, it would be worth investigating. I’ve taken my phone(s) with me to multiple states, and always had coverage. Great customer service too!

My church doesn’t pay BUT I do keep my bills and turn them in for my taxes as a business/professional expense along with any lunch/dinner/coffee reciepts I might have for ministry related purposes!
I second the comment on uscellular!

Great point, Josh, about raises in other forms than more pay. I asked for (and received) another week of vacation – I didn’t want to be a bigger financial burden. it has the same effect as a monetary raise (more pay for hours/weeks worked) but doesn’t cost the church. Vacation is a great thing to ask for, especially since as youth workers we are “always on.”

I have an expense account marked for ministry/conference/education. I can use this account to pay for my cell bill, as wel las conferences, and college classes I want to take and even taking folks out to eat. This has been a great help to me and the way I look at it at ads to my salary.

The church I was at in KY didn’t pay for cell or computer. The church I am at now pays my cell bill completely. I don’t even see it. The first week I was here, I got to go get an iPhone4 with otterbox. What a blessing! Now that my wife and daughters service plan is ending, the church has said that I can add them to the church plan for the $9.99/month plus data and they will take that out of my check. This will be a huge savings rather than having our own plan. The only problem for me is that I will not have access to the phone bill to keep track of who my teenage daughter is calling and her curfew. We may go with a “go phone” for her.

My current church pays nothing for my IPhone. I have never asked, and the senior minister said that they would do a stipend when I came on. It never came to fruition. I get mileage and a decent salary (no benefits) so I am not complaining.

My previous church just started to pay for it. And even purchased the phone for me. They wanted me to have the best tool for communication.

My church pays my cell phone bill and upgrades phones just about yearly. I recently had the option of going with an iPhone, but stuck wth Android cuz I’m so used to it and really like it. Hey Josh, how about a poll asking “iPhone or Android” and WHY? I’d love to hear the reasons! (Maybe you’ve done this poll already and I forgot or missed it!)

I had to pick “yes” because the church does pick up a good bit of the bill for my phone. It works out to a little over half the total phone bill (which is not including my wife’s line). Our pastor suggested this, as we use the phones for personal as well as church-related things.

My church pays for my cell phone costs and they seem to be doing just fine, along with many other church organizations. They’ve always covered my cell phone costs, from the moment I joined the church till now. They’re very cooperative and are willing to help.